05 July 2007

Debriefing for Match 12.13: At Kansas City Wizards

Kansas City Wizards 0 : 1 DC United

Six Word Novel Recap

We stole that thanks to Troy.

Media, Traditional and Otherwise

The Washington Post, Steve Goff: ""The hard way," Coach Tom Soehn said, huffing a sigh of relief. "It wasn't pretty.""MLSNet, Thomas Foote: "The Wizards outshot United 21-11 on the afternoon, with United goalkeeper Troy Perkins making eight saves. That made Luciano Emilio's 44th-minute goal stand up as the game-winner."Six Yards North, QJA: "McTavish gets my Man of the Match bid. The kid was just awesome, saving United at clutch moments and really doing his best to sustain the defense for those boiling-hot ninety minutes."The Edgell Supporters: "We acquired Fred for assists and Emilio for scoring, they both did their jobs today. We gave up a lot of shots and relied heavily on good play from Perkins and McTavish to bail us out. Sometimes individuals have to step up in order to get the win and that's ok."Blckdgrd: "I don't care it wasn't pretty. I don't care if United was lucky. I don't care Kansas City hit post twice, I don't care Kansas City missed sitters and ducks, I don't care how many karma points United burned to get the win, they stole a win, and if they catapult to Supporters - and raise your hand if two weeks ago you were thinking about Supporters - these three points might be the spark."Soccer Insider: Sohen: "(Key to Perkins's success) "I let him play his IPod in the locker room today so I think we're going to stick to that for a while. Usually it's banned.""Down The Byline: "The Wizards again shot the ball over 20 times today, but this time the Wizards couldn't score one goal. Twenty one shots, 4 by both Sasha Victorine and Scott Sealy, and the Wizards could not find a single goal."

The Good

Troy Perkins: Unbelievably good game by Perkins. Is it the iPod? Don't know what else to say except that DC owes all three points in this game to Troy.

Bloodying The Reserves: McTavish, Simms, Moose, and Adderly all started the game. In addition to them, Mediate, Dayachenko, and DeRoux all got some playing time. This will help United down the stretch which is good. The fact that United got these players minutes and a win is very good. McTavish looks like very good defensive depth on a team that was sorely lacking it earlier in the season. Moose is coming along nicely and hopefully will continue to attack the goal. It was nice to Mediate back in the black and red, he had a quiet game, but when you are brought in for more defense that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Luciano Emilio: This is exactly why United acquired Emilio in the off season. He had one chance all game long and he buried it. United hasn't had a pure striker like this in a long while. That was not an easy goal, but he scored it and got United three points out of Troy's heroics instead of just one. Hopefully he can continue scoring in Houston this Sunday.

The Bad

Matador Defense: I don't know how many times DC United's back four let the Kansas City players blow right by them. I know it was more than ten because I was out of fingers and lost count. With two reserves and another new acquisition in his first game this is somewhat understandable. It is interesting that in my opinion, United's two shutouts have been their second and third worse games defensively (only the first Kansas City game was worse). Hopefully with Boswell and Namoff back they can integrate Vanney and start locking teams down again.

Possession: United had it going for a while and then lost it. Got it again, and they gave it back to KC. With a midday game in the Kansas City the game was custom made for a possession game but United couldn't control the ball. I know the Wiz were pressuring the ball, but DC still needs to do a better job of holding onto the ball.

Road Intensity: It seems like United just hasn't brought its passion on the road this season. They came out flat against Colorado, basically laid down against LA and RSL, and never really brought it in Kansas City. The only time we saw them play a full game on the road was in Toronto when they were about to be on the bottom of the table. If United's goal really is the Supporter Shield they are going to have to up their intensity in away games considerably.

Man of the Match

No question, this goes to Troy Perkins. Young Devon played well, but Troy was the Hero of the match.

Karma Bank

We lose three karma since we stole three points. But Perkins gains one back for us by graciously donating his time and putting on a goalkeeping clinic for the Kansas City fans. This makes us -1 for the season.

Final Thoughts

I went into this game looking for just a point. I seriously thought it was going to be a 0-0 game. United managed to get three and move back into first place in the East, at least temporarily. However, the next three regular season games are against Houston, Dallas, and New York. United needs to continue its good form through these games and the Superliga if they want a chance at any hardware before the playoffs.

Ok, yeah, ugly. Lots of United wins have been ugly. I am glad that this one was win thanks to some spectacular play, rather than PKs. There are going to be off days, but I'm glad to know that when those happen DCU has players capable of stepping up and holding the line: McTavish did well, Perkins was in great form and Emilio came through.KC played better, but they couldn't pull the trigger and Perkins and McTavish prevented it from being easy. And honestly, I think that's a really important ability. But what the hell do I know?

One other thing that I didn't really see mentioned - Didn't Gomez have a helluva distance shot in the first half that was only kept out by a similarly "helluva" save? I suppose that's not worth a karma point, but it was a nice shot and made me happy. I think it was Gomez, but I didn't tape the game.

Bob: I think Gomez was a surprise pick, I know I wouldn't have gone with him or DeRo. Which is the other one he should have called out. I had the game on mute for a little bit (I think I did it during a 30 on 30 and just didn't change it back) so I missed the Bruce = Tommy exchange.

Anon: I didn't noticed this Adderly/Addlery thing until your post. But I always thought it was Adderly and apparently it is Addlery. Interesting.

Skippy: Yep, it was one of those games that good teams can steal, and DC did. Lets just hope they don't keep trying it like they did in the second half of last season.

Bob (again): Thanks for pointing it out. Last year I read the ESPN power rankings every week, this year I keep forgetting to look at them.